Ebay problem -- Sold as working but it's not working... I fixed it!!!

[Auric]

A damaged parcel should be refused so it is automatically returned and eligible for a claim by the seller, and of course minimize refund hassle for the buyer.

 

[Muse]

A damaged parcel should be refused so it is automatically returned and eligible for a claim by the seller, and of course minimize refund hassle for the buyer.

I was so happy to see that box on my porch a day before they said there was any chance and several days before I expected it, I didn't consider initiating a return. Folks in this thread had me thinking I was protected against a malfunctioning machine. I figured test it, fix it if possible, and I did. Seems great now. Could act up, who knows, but right now all is rosy. I even banged out that little dent in the cover mostly with a ball peen hammer while cleaning it up.

 

[RossMAN]

So, my birthday was Sunday and in anticipation I couldn't resist buying another of these Pioneer 301 disk players off ebay. I snagged one even cheaper than the other.

Happy post birthday!

 

[Auric]

eBay does favour buyers so it would not be surprising if a refund claim was allowed even though a damaged parcel was accepted, thereby really buggering the seller since unable to make an insurance claim against the parcel service. In such case whare a parcel is left (therefore no chance to refuse), it would be courteous to contact the seller for guidance first.

 

[WackyDan]

The seller has said nothing about a shipping lock. He just packed it well, didn't write anything on the carton such as "Please handle gently -- delicate mechanical equipment." I would have done that.

I Googled the error code and model number and came up with nothing. There was a page with a different error code, U1 instead of U2, but the information was evidently irrelevant.

Now I do have a working one of these, the one I bought on Jan. 2, 2000. I could take all 300 disks out of it, take the cover off and see if I can see a difference in the machines. I have been intending to rearrange the order of the disks in the machine, anyway, an excuse to unload the machine (taking 300 CDs out of one of these and storing them and resorting them is something of a project!)

I might be better off taking people's advice and ripping my CDs to some format. I've always ripped to either WAV or MP3, but someone suggested FLAC? Well, I think I could use some info on this, just how to rip, what programs to use. I think I should obviously rip (somehow), tracks separately so that I can play particular tracks.

My smartphone (Nokia 520) is Windows Phone OS. My NAS has an app called DS Audio (Synology Diskstation), that allows my phone to access audio wirelessly.

I've never used a bluetooth device. Obviously, I can/could. Yeah, I get CDs all the time, if I can work out a system where I can play tracks from my computers or wirelessly with my smartphone and laptops, also into my mini-stereo in the kitchen, that might be super.

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement!

Here's the exchange I started with the seller since I discovered the problem:

- - - -
Me: This thing was working when you sent it to me? Did you test it to see if it
was working before you made the listing? It's not working right now. The
error code (U2) says there may be something in the rack impeding it and
that there is something wrong in the mechanical section. I can't see
anything that appears wrong when I take the cover off. Thanks for your
reply.
- - - -
Seller: I just took all my discs out of it a a couple weeks before the
auction, it has worked well for years.
I have never seen this error code.
Does the error code show up as soon as the player is turned on? Or is it
when you try to turn the disc ring?

I am sorry the changer did not
arrive working, and packaged it as well as possible.
-JMRJMR1
- - - -
Me: The 1st thing that happens when I turn it on is it starts buzzing pretty
loud, so you know something's wrong. The error code (U2) doesn't show up
immediately, only after pressing buttons to try to get it to open and
accept disks. Once it tries those things and fails, the code eventually
shows up.

You packed it well. Myself, I would have written with a wide
Sharpie, "Please handle gently -- delicate mechanical equipment." However,
that's no guarantee that some Fedex person wouldn't throw the box, never
bothering to notice.

When I turn it on it makes a pretty loud buzzing
noise. After pressing buttons, it eventually will open the door, but the
carousel refuses to turn no matter what you do. Spinning the jog dial,
pressing the single loader button, nothing makes the carousel turn. You
can't load disks, much less play them. The buzzing stops sometimes. I
looked inside (took cover off) but don't see anything obviously wrong. I
have another that I've had since Jan. 2, 2000, it works, it's full (I
wanted another so I can work them in a master/slave arrangement to get 602 disks. My manual explains how to do that.) I can unload my original one and take the cover off and see if I can see a difference between the two
machines, it may give a hint what's wrong, but I'm not optimistic. But I
think that's worth a try.

I have two 400 disc Sony changers in my attic. I ripped every disc I had to high bit rate MP3 and haven't looked back. Best decision I made. I suggest you do the same. Probably going to put them in the yard sale in September.

 

[Muse]

Happy post birthday!

Thank you!

eBay does favour buyers so it would not be surprising if a refund claim was allowed even though a damaged parcel was accepted, thereby really buggering the seller since unable to make an insurance claim against the parcel service. In such case whare a parcel is left (therefore no chance to refuse), it would be courteous to contact the seller for guidance first.

It didn't occur to me. Well, it seems OK now, I figure odds are it will continue to work OK. The seller (or perhaps more likely, the party to unloaded it originally, it eventually to fall into the hands of the seller) maybe got rid of it because it started saying "No Disk" and didn't realize that it was likely a dirty laser lens causing the problem.

Well, it would have been a hassle to deal with the damaged package scenario. I figured that a hole in the box wasn't likely indicative that the device had sustained damage. I've seen so many boxes damaged that have been shipped to me. I've yet to complain IIRC. But most of the things in those packages weren't electronics with mechanical components. Again, this person didn't indicate on the package that it should be handled with care (as if that would help!).

 

[Muse]

I have two 400 disc Sony changers in my attic. I ripped every disc I had to high bit rate MP3 and haven't looked back. Best decision I made. I suggest you do the same. Probably going to put them in the yard sale in September.

How do you deal with listening to them? Do you have anything like the convenience of being able to pick a certain album and go to various tracks? The CD Text feature in the Pioneer players is crucial for me.

Hey, I don't doubt that having the music stored digitally is potentially very effective and convenient, but I don't have a fix on how it's done. I do create MP3s with tags, but so far that hasn't done a lot for me. In my smartphone (Nokia 520, Windows Phone 8.1), I have trouble a lot of the time finding the tracks I want. It seems that a limited set of tags is supported, the ones I see are:

Artists
Albums
Songs
Genres
Playlists

Finding what I want by scrolling a long list is typically aggravating.

Now, what I do right now is keep the info on what's in my carousel CD players in a database and I can and do print out reports. One of the reports lists by artist alphabetically and has the corresponding disk position in the players. That's the one I reach for when I want to hear a specific disk (I NEVER hit the Random button, although I think I'm going to try that). Another report lists the contents of the players in disk number sequence. Currently (I set this up last week), I have sections of the players mapped to specific genres, so this is very convenient if I feel like listening to a certain genre. It also lets me add disks to a specific genre-section. I just consult that report, pick an empty slot, put in the disk and jot a note on the report for my reference both to listen and to later update my data.

 

[Ketchup]

Is the limit you mentioned: Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, Playlists, a limitation of your phone, or your OS? I know that at least Windows 7 and up have way more tag options than that.

Maybe you just need a better app for your phone.

 

[Ichinisan]

How do you deal with listening to them? Do you have anything like the convenience of being able to pick a certain album and go to various tracks? The CD Text feature in the Pioneer players is crucial for me.

Hey, I don't doubt that having the music stored digitally is potentially very effective and convenient, but I don't have a fix on how it's done. I do create MP3s with tags, but so far that hasn't done a lot for me. In my smartphone (Nokia 520, Windows Phone 8.1), I have trouble a lot of the time finding the tracks I want. It seems that a limited set of tags is supported, the ones I see are:

Artists
Albums
Songs
Genres
Playlists

Finding what I want by scrolling a long list is typically aggravating.

Now, what I do right now is keep the info on what's in my carousel CD players in a database and I can and do print out reports. One of the reports lists by artist alphabetically and has the corresponding disk position in the players. That's the one I reach for when I want to hear a specific disk (I NEVER hit the Random button, although I think I'm going to try that). Another report lists the contents of the players in disk number sequence. Currently (I set this up last week), I have sections of the players mapped to specific genres, so this is very convenient if I feel like listening to a certain genre. It also lets me add disks to a specific genre-section. I just consult that report, pick an empty slot, put in the disk and jot a note on the report for my reference both to listen and to later update my data.

I rip mine in Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) via iTunes. I have albums sorted by album artist. I made sure to get the correct artwork for each album if it couldn't find it automatically. Double-click an album to play it from the start, or click once to expand and click whichever track you want to play. Universal search at the top searches track names, artist / band names, album titles, etc.

I think iTunes Match may have been re-named to "iCloud Music Library." The whole library is available on my iPad, Windows computer, iPhone, and Apple TV. On my mobile devices, I can stream anything from iCloud, or download a track/album with one tap. I like that my library doesn't have to occupy the storage on my mobile devices. I'm OK with 256kbps from iCloud. At home, I just use iTunes Home Sharing so the Apple TV plays full lossless bit rate.

With Siri, I can say:

"Play all songs, shuffled."
"Play something by [band/artist]."
"Play album ____."
"Play something else."
"Play electronic music."
"Play something acoustic."

It's pretty easy.

 

[Muse]

Is the limit you mentioned: Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, Playlists, a limitation of your phone, or your OS? I know that at least Windows 7 and up have way more tag options than that.

Maybe you just need a better app for your phone.

I don't know. I didn't see options to expand the supported tags. Maybe there's a better audio app I can get for the phone, I should look into that. I know that Windows has dozens of tags I can use.

Today I set up things in my kitchen so that I can play the 301 CD player I got the other day, FM/AM, cassette tapes, my computer (and therefore internet sound, e.g. Youtube, also all the MP3s I have on my NAS are available with the computer, also I have a cord dedicated to portable devices via minijack (my phone and Sansa M250 MP3/FM player. All this is nicely done with the 4way switch I just got off eBay. I play all these through my 25watt Lepai amp into fair sized Yamaha speakers. Sounds good.

 

[Muse]

With Siri, I can say:

"Play all songs, shuffled."
"Play something by [band/artist]."
"Play album ____."
"Play something else."
"Play electronic music."
"Play something acoustic."

It's pretty easy.

I don't have iAnything. Maybe I can work things out with my Windows phone and Cortana to play stuff with voice prompting, either by Bluetooth or maybe being jacked into my switch. I have an app on the phone called DS Audio that supports my Synology NAS (there's also a DS Video and DS Photo). With that I can stream audio to the phone, well I can when I find my sign-in credentials, the ones I have weren't working a couple of weeks ago.